Death announced of Tommy Carberry
Death announced of Tommy Carberry
Carl (12th July 2017)
My first racing hero.
Flat or jumps all came alike to Tommy.
My trainer JJ Walsh tells a great tale of Tommy; entries were two to three weeks ahead of race day in the old days and once you made your entry you booked your jockey. Tommy always kept his word when accepting a ride regardless of what else he was offered.
This day, St Patrick's Day at Limerick , day after Cheltenham Tommy is booked to ride Fort Brady, trained by JJ and owned by bookmaker Alf Hogan.
The money was down from early morning, they arrived at the races only to find Tommy unconscious from drink after a successful Festival.
The owners wanted to replace Tommy; JJ refused, waiting for Tommy to excuse himself.
Valets spent the afternoon pouring coffee into Tommy to sober him up but to no avail.
Tommy arrived in parade ring for his ride and duly fell off the other side when legged up.
Anyways he left the parade ring eventually.
The race, a 3 mile chase was like a battle ground on heavy going with horses falling right and left.
Tommy's horseman ship and survival skills kept the partnership intact as he instinctively avoided fallen horses and jockeys to win alone.
JJ maintains he would never have won had he been sober.
He won Gold Cups, Grand Nationals , Colonial Cups, Birdcatcher Nursery and Joe McGrath Champion stakes in the 1970s; the nearest we have seen to Martin Molony in my lifetime. At a Killarney May meeting he won on the flat, hurdles and fences and could do 9 stone easily.
The last time i saw Tommy was at Leopardstown a few years ago when Nina, Peter John, Paul and maybe Philip rode in Leopardstown chase.
After racing i over heard him tell his wife he could not make it down the stairs from the top level but she took his hand and guided him down.
One of the very very best I have seen ride, he was also the one J P McManus held in highest esteem.
Rest in Peace Tommy.
archie (13th July 2017), Carl (12th July 2017), chroniclandlord (18th July 2017), Colin Phillips (12th July 2017), Diamond Geezer (12th July 2017), fonz (12th July 2017), granger (13th July 2017), Grasshopper (12th July 2017), Grey (12th July 2017), harry (21st July 2017), HawkWing (12th July 2017), Perpetual (12th July 2017)
Lovely post Eddie - he done it all and sired a great crop himself
Some people say he’s the best since Arkle and that’s certainly true when you look at what he’s done
Former trainer David Wintle passsed away this morning after a long battle against cancer.
Carl (19th July 2017)
L'Escargot,Tied Cottage, Brown Lad and Ten Up. The equine heroes of my childhood all partnered by Tommy Carberry.
RIP Tommy.
Carl (19th July 2017)
The definitive obituary to Tommy Carberry due to be published in Irish Examiner tomorrow penned by our own An Capall.
Jaysus. Pressure.
Drew on Edgt story above, but second sourced of course.
"And still they gazed and still the wonder grew. That one small head could carry all he knew.
And that small head knew that Impaire Et Passe would win the Champion Hurdle."
Carl (21st July 2017), Colin Phillips (21st July 2017), Desperate Dan (21st July 2017), Grasshopper (21st July 2017)
Excellent piece, AC. Bravo!
Ah! but a man's reach should exceed his grasp......
an capall (21st July 2017)
Great read, well done AC!
Great stuff, Colm.
"Beat the price and lose. It's what we do".
SlimChance, March 2018
Tragic news from Haydock, Stalls handler Stephen Yarborough dead after being ran over by the starting gates.Terrrible.
Rest in Peace Stephen.
Nicely penned Colm. If I wasn't going to live to 108 I'd ask you to do my obituary too
Some people say he’s the best since Arkle and that’s certainly true when you look at what he’s done
"Granger was a an enigmatic fellow................"
"And still they gazed and still the wonder grew. That one small head could carry all he knew.
And that small head knew that Impaire Et Passe would win the Champion Hurdle."
granger (24th July 2017)
Ann Potts, joint owner of Sizing John and others with husband Alan, has passed away after a long illness.
I hope Alan continues racing and to enjoy the fine horses in his ownership.
He would be a huge loss to racing should he retire from ownership.
I'm sure he will and the sight of Ann Potts hugging Robby Power after the Gold Cup tells me she would have wanted him to.
Formely Fist of Fury
Tommy Craig who I got to know back in the day has passed away aged 81. R.I.P. Old pal
I got to know him well and we met at Newmarket sales one day and he went out of his way to have a look without any axe to grind at what I had bought Never forget what he said "You'll be fine he said he's got a head like Arkle"
When I told him what we paid for him at the sales he said we should be wearing masks...The horse won 30 times what we paid for him so he was right:0)
My trainer Tommy and I ended up having dinner with late Willie Stevenson that night (not WA) a man he regarded as one of the greatest of all time.
I had no idea who the elderly gentleman was but Tommy said you are in the company of greatness.
A gentleman who was always up for a good old tongue wag...anyway for those who don't remember him
a little info from 15 years ago
AS the nephew of Scotland's only Classic-winning trainer, Tommy Craig had a hard act to follow at his Tilton House stables, Dunbar.
Even though he never achieved George Boyd's feat of winning the 2000 Guineas, he still enjoyed a fairly successful career with a licence over jumps and on the Flat.
Having set up on his own in 1970, Craig saddled nearly 300 winners as a trainer before quitting almost a decade ago.
Now a sprightly 66-year-old, he is still a regular at most of the Scottish tracks and rarely misses Musselburgh.
He said: "I was at Ayr for the New Year meeting just before the cold weather set in and I love going to Musselburgh, especially for the Flat. I prefer Flat racing but I still enjoy a good day's jumping too."
Craig may not have had a Rockavon in his yard but he trained some decent animals including speedster Goldhills Pride, Takachinho, Davett and the useful chaser Tangles Brother.
He recalled: "Goldhills Pride was a terrific sprinter and he won the Portland Handicap at Doncaster in 1978 for Kevin Leason who has had a sex-change operation and is now a woman called Karen!
"Lester Piggott rang up for the ride as the horse had been third in the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket so owner Henry Ford had another pounds 1,000 on. Kevin wasn't a bad wee jockey and we landed quite a gamble that day.
"Tangles Brother won a few races over fences for us but one of his best efforts was when he was second at Aintree's Grand National meeting one year."
The East Lothian yard pulled off another coup at Lanark in 1974 when Can Donna was backed from 7's to 9-4 before winning the seller.
But tragedy had struck a year earlier shortly after Song Of Gold won at Edinburgh when the horse got loose, bolted and was killed by a van.
Another low-point came when Leason and Halsall were demoted having finished first past the post in the 1976 Cumberland Plate at Carlisle.
Craig's best season was in 1977 when he racked up 24 winners and he said: "We had some good jockeys and I remember Allan Mackay having his first winner on his first ride on Lanark Birk at York's October meeting in 1976."
Formely Fist of Fury
Carl (25th August 2017), Diamond Geezer (25th August 2017), edgt (25th August 2017)
Nice post Tanlic.
I read a story where Rockavon was being featured in some newspaper a few days before travelling to Epsom for The Derby.
The horse was being plated and the photographer wanted a photo. The farrier looked up to smile into the camera, drove the nail the wrong way and Rockavon missed the race. You can possibly confirm or deny the truth of this.